I caught up with a friend recently who has been involved with startups for years as a founder or engineer. His current position is senior engineer at a blockchain startup, funded a few years ago when VC money was flowing and “blockchain” was hot.

“Honestly, I don’t even know what we’re building or who will use it,” he admitted.

People love to talk about the successes and use that to justify the VC startup model, but I suspect many if not most are like this - a pretend company based on a buzzword with no real customers or viable business model.